The DIAMETER protocol is a computer networking protocol for providing Authentication, Authorization, and Accounting (AAA) functions. The DIAMETER protocol utilizes Query-Response transactions to perform AAA functions. The DIAMETER protocol expects an end-to-end tunnel association to be set up between an originating network element (NE) and a destination network element (NE) before any Query-Response transaction is initiated. Disadvantageously, a unique DIAMETER association must be created for each pair of originating NEs and destination NEs and, further, the created DIAMETER associations must be maintained for the lifetime of network call processing. Furthermore, if multiple originating NEs or multiple destination NEs are created (e.g., for load sharing and/or reliability purposes), where the multiple NEs share identical attributes (e.g., logical entity, IP address, port numbers, and the like), maintaining such DIAMETER associations between originating NE and destination NE pairs becomes even more cumbersome, and, thus, inefficient from a call processing perspective. Moreover, maintaining such DIAMETER associations, especially redundant DIAMETER associations, produce significant memory usage overhead and CPU usage overhead on every DIAMETER NE.